Special Teams a 'Strong Area' for Alabama to Start the Season

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Two minutes and 21 seconds. That's how long Kalen DeBoer talked about Alabama's special teams during his opening statement of Monday's press conference. It has been a strength for the Crimson Tide through the first two games, and the head coach wanted to make sure he highlighted that.

Special teams also helped deliver the play that completely flipped the momentum of Saturday's 45-17 win over Kentucky.

Alabama had finally taken its first lead of the game against Kentucky after an EJ Crowell rushing touchdown in the third quarter, but it would only take one trick play to get the packed Kroger Field crowd back into a frenzy.

The Tide's special teams made sure that wasn't going to happen.

On a fourth-and-3 from their own 32-yard line, the Wildcats attempted a fake punt that QB Reese, Ivan Taylor, Xavier Griffin and Keon Sabb combined to break up. Alabama was in the end zone two plays later to make the score 31-17, and the route was on.

"The fake punt, you know, just guys in position," DeBoer said. "QB Reese setting a good edge. Keon Sabb up in there pushing his his blocker into the hole. Ivan Taylor scraping over the top, backside pursuit, not getting caught off guard. That's a big play. That third quarter that led to a lot of momentum for us.”

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Alabama scored 22 unanswered points after the fake-punt attempt as part of a 32-0 shutout in the second half. Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack displayed a lot of emotion on the sidelines throughout the game after big plays from his defense, and he shared a hug with special teams coordinator Jay Nunez after the fourth-down stop.

"Jay does a fantastic job," Wommack said. "He’s got great scheme and the fundamental work of those guys. I think that, as much as anything was a fundamental stop. It was great block destruction, great effort of getting hats to the ball, and then obviously from a tackling standpoint, those are the same things that we preach as a defense. But what Jay does a fantastic job of is creating buy-in within the group. He brings a lot of energy to those meetings. The players are bought in to what they’re doing. They take great ownership of their role on special teams. Typically, the defensive players are usually, from a personnel standpoint, are most of the guys on that punt return unit and kickoff and a number of units. I’m certainly happy for him and proud of the way those guys are operating right now. Our special teams has done a fantastic job so far.”

Senior kicker Conor Talty was 3-for-3 on field goal attempts and is perfect on the season on field goals and extra points. It is a limited sample size, but every punt from sophomore Alex Asparuhov has been at least 50 yards. Alabama has been sound in both punt and kickoff coverage.

"I just think again, two weeks in a row, it's been a strong area," DeBoer said of Alabama's special teams.

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